To develop students’ skills and knowledge in their concentration areas. The department offers three concentration areas: Computer Science, Information Systems and Information Assurance and Security.
Objective
Specialized Skills
Students will develop and demonstrate skills and knowledge in their concentration areas. The department offers three concentration areas: Computer Science, Information Systems and Information Assurance and Security.
Indicator
Faculty Review
During department meetings faculty with expertise in the three concentration areas will discuss students’ performances in their concentration areas. We expect that faculty in each concentration area will evaluate student performance across the 18 hours course sequence for each concentration.
Criterion
Specialized Skills Faculty Review Criterion
We expect that faculty will deem at least 70% or more of students’ performances as acceptable.
Finding
Specialized Competency Review Findings
At the April department meeting the faculty discussed the level of capability of students. Faculty from each of the three tracks (specialisms) reviewed student performance and determined that more than 70% of the student were performing at or above the expected level. Faculty expressed a desire to adopt a more organized approach to the evaluation of student work.
Action
Specialized Skill Action
While the discussion concerning the capabilities of students was fruitful there was a strong indication from the faculty that it needs to be more organized. The curriculum committee will be charged with identifying the most important content areas and corresponding concepts and designing a rubric that allows faculty to provide a quantitative measure for their evaluation. In addition to improving the evaluation process, the rubric will allow faculty to identify the content concepts they deem most important to the learning process. Faculty can then begin to place more classroom emphasis on those concepts. This change should increase the percentage of students whose work faculty deems acceptable.
Goal
Ethical Principles, Technical Skills, And Management Skills (core)
To develop students’ knowledge of ethical principles, technical skills, and management skills relevant to the field of computer science.
Objective
Acquisition Of Technical Skill, Management And Ethical Principles
Students will develop and demonstrate knowledge of ethical principles, technical skills, and management skills relevant to the field of computer science.
Indicator
ICCP Examination
All undergraduate students must complete CS 437 prior to graduation. Part of the course requirements for CS 437 is to prepare for and take the ICCP Examination. The Institute Certified Computer Professional exam is an exam adopted by the Institute for Certification of Computer Professional (ICCP), the national association in the field of computer science. The exam consists of three sections: ethical principles, technical skills, and management skills. The grading of the three sections is objective grading (i.e., there is no written component to the exam)
Criterion
ICCP Exam Performance
The associate level scoring on the exam is between 70% and 85% and professional level scoring is between 86% and 100%. We expect that 70% of graduating seniors taking the exam will pass at or above the associate level.
Finding
ICCP Exam Performance Finding
67% of the students scored within the associate range, 11% scored within the professional range, and 22% failed to score at the minimum associate range. A total of 78% scored at or above the associate range and thus we exceeded our expectations. Faculty and chair did express some concerns that the results could have been much higher had the students not been forced to complete the management section of the exam, a section that addresses material outside the scope of the MS program.
Action
ICCP Exam Action
In fall 2010 chair and faculty will explore the possibility of students being able to take the ICCP exam minus the management section. Such a scenario would allow for a more accurate measurement of students' skills and knowledge.
Goal
Student Professional Preparation
The goal of the program is to appropriately prepare students for entry into the professional computer science field.
Objective
Student Professional Preparation
Students will demonstrate their readiness to successfully enter the professional market
Indicator
Graduating Senior Exit Survey
The department of computer science administers an online anonymous exit survey at the end of each semester. Emails are sent to students with a link to the survey. The survey contains questions relevant to students’ professional preparation, specifically question seven (The courses provided content that was useful in preparation of my career in computer science) and question nine (Are you currently employed in the field of computer science?). Students in CS 437 Software Engineering are given a timed opportunity to complete the survey at the same time as they complete their IDEA faculty evaluation forms.
Criterion
Survey Response Expectations
We expect that all students completing the survey will answer agree or strongly agree to question seven. For question nine, we expect that 80% will answer full time employment, 10% part time employment, and 10% no employment.
Finding
Professional Preparation Findings
Students responded positively to question 7 with 80% responding agree or strongly agree. Nine students indicated they were going into full time employment in a CS related field, four indicated they were going to continue their eduation at Sam Houston, three will attend graduate school elsewhere and one was unsure. There were no students who would be employed part time, unemplyed or employed in an unrelated field. Although we were pleased with the survey results, the response rate continues to be a problem. Roughly 62% of the students graduating completed the survey.
Action
Student Professional Preparation Action
In the fall of 2010 the undergraduate committee will begin developing a survey approach that allows us to implement both online and in-class anonymous surveys. This should allow us to increase our response rate.